Greater good or individual right (Bentham or Rawls)?

"It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong."

(More commonly, in the parlance of Star Trek: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.")

On the other hand, Rawls has posited that:

"Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests."

I think by definition all human behavior can be classified as human behavior. However, I would object to classifying rape as "normal" just because it is part of human behavior. I could just as easily argue that laws prohibiting rape is "normal" and part of human behavior, since we agree that every society has laws against it.

Isn't it more accurate to say that rape is generally considered anti-social behavior that society abhors to the point of punishing harshly?

"Normal" is a silly putty word that can mean a lot of different and sometimes incompatible things, which means two sides of an issue can use it. I suggest not using or arguing over that word.

Here's what I mean: "normal" has a sense of conforming to a norm ("norm" in this case meaning something we want to promote as good or healthy), but another sense that something is common enough to take note of. If you go to dictionary.com, you'll find a number of different definitions. This allows for people talking past each other on any issue where normality is brought up. For example:

Most people aren't homosexual. Only about 10%. From a statistical point of view, then, homosexuality is abnormal, which allows anti-gays to use normality as an argument against them. However, it's common enough and not thought pathological by the psychologists, so it's as normal as having red hair or being lefthanded from that point of view.

As for rape, while most would agree that rape isn't normal behavior (isn't behavior we want to promote), it's normal for a certain percentage of any population to be rapists.